Question:- What do you mean by available literature and bibliography? How far survey of these two helpful in modern day legal research?

Answer:-

A bibliography is a list of books, scholarly articles, speeches, private records, diaries, interviews, laws, letters, websites, and other sources you use when researching a topic and writing a paper. The bibliography appears at the end.

The main purpose of a bibliography entry is to give credit to authors whose work you’ve consulted in your research. It also makes it easy for a reader to find out more about your topic by delving into the research that you used to write your paper. In the academic world, papers aren’t written in a vacuum; academic journals are the way new research on a topic circulates and previous work is built upon.

Literature broadly is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed.We  can say that Available literature means literature which available.

Once the research problem is formulated, the researcher needs to undertake an extensive survey of literature connected with, related to, and/or having bearing on, his research problem. This is the process whereby the researcher locates and selects the references that are relevant for his inquiry. A scholar of law, at this stage, is expected to cautiously outline his work and then survey around to lay his hands on standard material. Some important reference material he can look into can be as follows,

1. Standard textbooks: such as those written by reputed authors,

2. Reference books: dealing with or having bearing on the research problem,

3. Legal periodicals: so that he locate research articles written, or authoritative comments made, on the subject or its allied subjects,

4. Case reports: so that he get familiarize with the judicial exposition of the problem,

5. conference/symposium/seminar proceedings: to become accustomed to different proportions highlighted in, investigate into, or appear from, the conference/symposium/seminars,

6. Government or Committee Reports: so as to appreciate and understand perspectives of the ideas or intention of the law-makers and the experts in the field (when by delegated legislation) , and

7. General web pages: so that to know latest emerging perspectives and illustrative examples. There are many good materials (writings) available on the net. One can subscribe to a good online library etc.

8. Earlier studies done: The researcher has also to take special care to locate earlier studies done on the problem and to have a quick reading thereof. Many leading journals and other published information from recognized sources are now available on the Web.

Survey of available literature and bibliography helps the researcher to know and to have his preliminary impressions about:

1. The investigated and un-investigated aspects/dimensions of the problem,

2. The explanations offered or issues rose with and without offering solutions thereof

3. The lacuna, if any, in the offered explanations of the problem/its dimensions and their inter-relationship.

4. Competence of previous authors/ researchers in explaining the problem/its dimensions

5. Conceptual issues raised, with or without offering suggesting and/or solutions thereof

6. The operational framework of previous researcher and

7. Research techniques used in the previous research, and their correctness.

Survey of available literature and bibliography enables the researcher to know what kind of data has been used, what methods have been used to obtain the data, and what difficulties the earlier researchers in collecting and analyzing the data have faced.

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*Team, www.deepakmiglani.com

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